Zane

H e banged on the door for the third time and was feeling a bit of déjà vu, and the last thing he wanted to do was stand out in front of the door with his pregnant girlfriend. “Open the fucking door, Crew,” he said, banging on the door again. Hell, the thing was so flimsy that he was sure that sooner or later, he’d end up beating it down.

“We’re going to talk about not cursing in front of the baby,” Dakota complained.

“The baby isn’t even here yet and I’m pretty sure that he can’t even hear us,” said.

“What if it’s a she?” Dakota countered. was about to tell her that he didn’t care if the baby was a boy or a girl. Either was fine with him, when the door flew open and a very pissed off Crew staired them both down.

“You know, these fucking walls are paper thin, and I can hear both of you. What the fuck are you two talking about a baby for?” he asked.

“Well, look who’s finally talking to me,” she spat. “You do know that I’ve spent the last two weeks at work, trying to get you to talk to me. I’ve left message after message, stopped by your office to find that you had just left, and asked everyone who knew you where you were hiding. Do you know how demeaning it was to have you completely ignore me like I don’t even matter to you?” she asked. “Like we don’t matter to you,” Dakota said, pointing between herself and . “And now, I’m pregnant and we can’t even celebrate that the three of us are going to have a baby because we’re not the three of us anymore. I don’t know if we’ll ever be the three of us again, and that thought scares the shit out of me,” she shouted.

“I thought that we weren’t going to curse around the baby,” reminded.

“Not the fucking time, ,” Dakota shouted, making both guys laugh. “None of this is funny.” Dakota started crying and Crew and he crowded around her, just as they used to. They both wrapped her in their arms, the three of them around the world—well, almost four soon enough.

“Are you really going to have our baby?” Crew asked.

“You know, for a detective, you sure are slow to put all the clues together,” she chastised.

rolled his eyes, “Yes, she’s having our baby and if you can’t tell, she’s really hormonal.”

“I am not,” she insisted, wiping her nose on his shirt. “I can’t help it if I’m upset about us not being together.”

“I think that we look pretty together right now,” said. He looked over at Crew and smiled. “What do you think, babe?” he asked. “Are we together?”

“That depends if you two can ever forgive me,” he said. “I really fucked up and I didn’t think either of you wanted me back.”

“And me banging down your door earlier tonight wasn’t a clue that I wanted you back, Crew,” asked.

“Yeah, but I was wallowing in self-pity earlier and didn’t want to listen to you, but finding out that we’re going to be parents changes things. I just need to know if you can forgive me because if you can’t, this won’t work,” Crew said.

“I’ve already forgiven you,” Dakota insisted. “I love you and want you to be a part of our baby’s life.” watched as Crew dipped his head to kiss Dakota, wiping the tears from her cheeks when he finished.

“How about us?” he asked . “Are we okay?” thought about Crew’s question. He wanted to say yes right away, but he had a few questions first.

“How could you believe that I helped my father kill that woman?” he asked. “Why would you want to be with me if you could think that I would do something like that?”

“I didn’t want to. At first, I thought that my boss was barking up the wrong tree, but then, he said that he had evidence proving that you and your dad were working together,” Crew admitted.

“You could have just talked to me, Crew. You should have just asked me if I helped to kill Susan,” insisted.

“And you would have told me that you didn’t, but you know that if here is evidence, that’s what I believe. I’m sorry that I hurt you, . When I found out that my boss didn’t have any proof that you were involved, I moved into the place and started investigating your innocence. I tried to tell you that when you two where here last time, but you didn’t seem to want to hear it.”

“No, I heard you, but I didn’t believe you. I guess we both owe each other apologies,” said.

“I think that we should call things even,” Crew said. “How about it?” pulled Crew around their girl and hugged sealed his lips of his guy’s.

“That sounds good to me,” breathed, breaking their kiss. “Now, will you please come home with us? We have a baby to get ready for.”

“We still don’t know if Crew is happy about the baby. Maybe he doesn’t want to celebrate,” Dakota breathed.

Crew turned her around, and pulled her into his arms. stood back and let them have their moment together. He knew that Crew was probably as excited about the baby as he was, but Dakota needed to hear it from Crew. “I love you, honey,” he said. “And I’m thrilled about the baby.”

“Really?” she squeaked.

“I’ve wanted us to discuss being a real family since the night that we picked you up at the bar. I just didn’t know how that would work or what it would look like,” Crew said.

“I’ve been doing some research,” said, interrupting the two of them. “We can have a commitment ceremony, but you can only marry one of us.”

“No,” Dakota breathed. “I told you earlier that I won’t marry one of you without the other.”

“Wait—you two were talking marriage earlier?” Crew asked.

“Yes,” admitted, “I asked Dakota to marry me. It didn’t seem that you were coming back to us, and I didn’t want to put our lives on hold waiting for you. But our girl insisted that she would only marry both of us.”

Crew nodded and looked over at Dakota, “Thanks for that, honey,” he breathed, “but is right. You need to pick one of us to marry. That way, you and our kids will be taken care of. We need one of us to be your legal husband. Honestly, I think that it should be .”

“Me?” asked. “You do know what I do for a living. If she marries me, she and our children will always be in danger. If she legally marries you, she’ll be safe.”

“Don’t I get a say in this?” she asked.

“No,” they answered in unison.

“Listen, baby, we just want to keep you and our growing family safe. I can leave everything to both you and Crew in my will. You’ll both be taken care of, no matter what. But marrying me will mean that you have to constantly look over your shoulder and you’ll worry about our kids all the time. I want to protect you—both of you. Please, marry Crew so that I don’t have to worry about either of you more than I already do.”

“Again, —you do know that we are both cops, right?” Dakota teased. “I grew up with a target on my back for being my father’s daughter. I can handle myself.”

“How about if we compromise?” Crew asked. “You want to belong to both of us right?” he asked. Dakota nodded her agreement. “Great, how about the three of us having a commitment ceremony, and then, you and I have a civil ceremony, down at the courthouse, to make things legal. No one will have to know about it. Then, we can hyphen both ’s and my name to show that we are a family.”

“The three of us will present a united front,” chimed in.

Dakota seemed to think about it and when she finally nodded her agreement, they both let out the breaths that they were holding. “As long as the rest of the world sees the three of us as a family, that’s all that I care about. Our kids will never know that I’m only married to one of you, got it?” she asked. “This is important to me.”

“Works for me,” agreed.

“Me too,” Crew said.

They wrapped Phoenix in their arms, the three of them making the perfect family that never imagined he’d ever find. Falling in love with them both was as natural as breathing and when Dakota announced that she was pregnant, all the pieces seemed to fall into place.

Finding out that his father was a murderer had eliminated the only family that he had left. Now, had Dakota and Crew, with a baby on the way, and he considered himself the luckiest bastard on the face of the Earth.

The End

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